NATO Summit to focus mainly on defence spending, terrorism

The upcoming NATO summit in Brussels, scheduled for Thursday 25 May, is to be attended for the first time by US President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Theresa May and newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron. It will take place in the completely new NATO headquarters building and cover several essential topics.

While the long-discussed approach towards Russia is likely to be omitted amid scandals surrounding the Trump administration, burden-sharing and fight against terrorism are likely to be the two main topics. However, the debate will also likely focus on the details regarding the implementation of the four multinational battalions that are to be placed in the Baltics and Poland from June to strengthen the eastern border of the Alliance, where the Czech Republic, among other NATO members, will send its troops. The central topic, which raises a number of other issues, will be the calls for increases in NATO countries defence budgets. At this summit, the states are supposed to present their specific plans on how to fulfil the commitment of defence expenditure raises to 2% GDP - a highly unlikely goal. Another important issue will be the joint fight against terrorism, where especially the US, through Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, calls for the Alliance's more active approach towards the issue.